18 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



complete the work he has still in hand ; but assured that, with his 

 rare achievements, he cannot fail to pursue, in worlds unknown, 

 the exalted course of a knowledge and power in the realm of 

 science and a mental and a moral progress of which earth sees but 

 the beginning. 



Such men lead one to recognize what we sometimes lose sight 

 of. We are in danger of forgetting that a Society like ours should 

 not confine its interest or its investigations to practical skill and 

 temporary success alone. All honor to the hands that cultivate 

 the soil ! He who can make two blades of grass grow where but 

 one grew before is a benefactor of the race ; and yet high praise 

 is due to him who can penetrate into the recesses of that power of 

 mind which develops the great secrets by discovery of which all 

 nature is made to yield her noblest productions. Give a generous 

 prize to her who fashions the sweetest work of art in the choice 

 bouquet, and bestow a liberal reward on one who raises the 

 largest apple or one of the finest qualities that human culture can 

 produce. But do not pass by, or undervalue, the work of the 

 scientist who can devise the best combination of materials or 

 attain the secret of a culture by which, everywhere and always, 

 we can grow the choicest fruit, flower, and vegetable. On the 

 corner-stone of the first building erected, in 1845, by this Societ}', 

 was this inscription : 



" This edifice is erected by the 

 Massachusetts Horticultural Society 

 for the purpose of encouraging and improving the 

 Science and Practice of Horticulture." 



This great thing let us steadily do ; " encourage and improve," 

 not only the " practice," but the " science " of horticulture. We 

 may well go back to the article in the " New England Farmer," of 

 1829, which'proposed the formation of a society " for the promo- 

 tion of skilful and scientific horticulture." Are we making suffi- 

 cieut progress in both these acquisitions? When the present Hall 

 was to be built, the very same inscription was placed on its 

 corner-stone. Hence it would seem that the advocacy of scientific 

 horticulture, as well as practical, is at the base of the very build- 

 ing we occupy. In 1878, President Parkraan, in his farewell 

 address, adverted to what I am glad, as a former member of the 

 Committee on Publication and Discussion, to quote here. He 



